2017 is the 80th anniversary of the creation of Hormel's new meat, Spam. It isn't great, it definitely isn't good for you, but we (well, one of us) like it all the same. To mark this special date, Weird IR looks at the international implications of the unleashing of this canned meat product on the rest of the world.

Living in Japan, I admit I sometimes eat Spam. In fact, I ate it last night in a popular Okinawan dish called goya chanpuru. It's the closest and saltiest one can get to real American bacon in Japan (think of it as being similar to Sizzlean, without the lean part). I also ate a lot of it during extended stays in Hawaii in the 1990s. ​

Goya chanpuru, perfect with a nama biiru (draft beer)

Oh Sizzlean, where have you gone?

Spam is also pretty popular in Korea, where there is a dish called budae-jjigae (aka army stew or troop stew). So where is Spam popular? Guam? check. Phiippines? check. Pretty much everywhere that has hosted large American military bases in the postwar period has an affinity for Spam. ​

Army stew. Basically spam, instant ramen and kimchi.

A famous historical sociologist, Charles Tilly, has a famous argument that war made the state. (See the Duck of Minerva blog's discussion here) Basically, the need to fight frequent wars in Europe in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries hastened the development of the modern state.

The Spam corollary to that argument is that the occupation after war, WWII in this case, made Spam what it is today. Spam might not even be around if it wasn't for the occupation of US troops around the world.

Spam was so ubiquitous during WWII (even the Soviet army ate Spam), that American soldiers were tired of it and never wanted to see or eat it again after their return home. Normally this great decrease in demand would have sunk any product.

But in the areas of the world that were devastated by the war, people were in desperate need of food, and Spam met that need in areas that were under the control of American troops. Thus Spam became the sort of food that some countries relied on when they were in bad shape, and now look upon nostalgically as a reminder of those times.

So we can thank all of that pain and suffering much of the world went through for culinary creations, like Spam musubi.​